Economic Weekly: Monetary policy’s hard labour
- This week brings us the most pivotal remaining pieces of NZ data ahead of the RBNZ’s August 14 Monetary Policy Statement: the labour market figures
- CPI inflation has clearly peaked. The issue is whether the monetary tightness in place is going to get inflation back into the target band sufficiently quickly
- Provided the RBNZ remains confident inflation will be back in the band over the second half of 2024, there will be no need to push the OCR up even further
Contact us
Mark Smith
Senior Economist
Mark joined ASB in 2017, with over 20 years of public and private sector experience working as an economist in New Zealand and the UK.
His resume includes lengthy stints at ANZ and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, and he has also worked at the Bank of England, HM Treasury and the New Zealand Transport Agency. Mark's areas of specialisation include interest rate strategy, macro-economic analysis and urban economics.
Born and bred in the Waikato, Mark studied at Waikato University where he graduated with a Master of Social Sciences, majoring in Economics.
Mark's key strengths are the ability to use his extensive experience, inquisitive nature, analytical ability, creativity and pragmatism to dig a little deeper and to deliver common sense solutions to tackle complex problems.
When not at work Mark likes to travel, keep fit and spend time with his friends and family.
- Email: Mark